Enjoying Father, Son and Spirit

I know what a relationship with my friend is like, or a relationship with my wife . . . but I’m supposed to have this relationship with God. But I can’t see him, I can’t physically hear him.

In our heads we know more and more about the Bible, more and more about God and yet it often has such little impact on our lives.

We know Jesus died for our sins, but we struggle to be moved by that in our hearts. We believe that Jesus is glorious, that in our heads following him is better than chasing after sin. But in practice we find sin enticing and even irrestible. We know we should be telling others about Jesus but we rarely are so bowled over by Jesus that we just can’t help but speak about him to people we meet.

We have a head-heart lag. And it is suffocating our relationship with God.

Well this morning, we’re going to get a masterclass from Britain’s greatest ever theologian. Let me show you a selfie of him. Does anybody know who this is?

This is John Owen, and I should clarify that Britain’s great theologian was English. By the way, britain’s biggest heretic was a guy called Pelagius and he was Welsh. I just thought you should know that.

But John Owen was a guy who loved writing about God, and the book that encapsulates his passion, his masterpiece, his mona-lisa, is called ‘Communion with God’. That basically means relationship with God, having fellowship enjoying God.

And he says the key to unlocking that, the key to enjoying God, is learning to relate to God as a Trinity.

And you might be thinking, how is that going to help? That just makes it worse! I don’t even understand what the Trinity is!

Well the word Trinity just means that there is something about God that is three and something about God that is one. The Bible teaches that God one what and three whos. There is one God and three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Three whos who shares a singular what, a singular nature and being.

OK, but how can I grasp onto this and actually picture it in my mind.

Well, come back with me to the baptism of Jesus. The Father sent the Son from heaven to earth and when the Son began his ministry on earth, he was baptised. You can read this at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel.

And as Jesus comes out of the water, a voice comes from heaven. It’s not the Son, he’s on earth. The voice of the Father says, “this is my Son, with him I am well pleased”. The Father and the Son. And then the Father sends the Spirit over his Son in the form of a dove. And so you have a picture of who God is, Father, SOn and HS.

That’s at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. Then at the very end, the last thing Jesus says before he returns to heaven is this:

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18–19 NIV - Anglicised

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

ThereforeBaptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy SpiritThe Father first sends the Son, and then the Spirit.

Baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy SpiritThe Father first sends the Son, and then the Spirit.

[slide]

Just as Matthew’s gospel starts with Jesus’ baptism as a picture of the Trinity, it ends with a command to baptise others into life with the Trinity. Don’t baptise them into three names but into the one name of Father, Son and SPirit. It’s the Trinity!

OK so we’ve got the Trinity, we’ve got a picture of what that looks like in the baptism of Jesus.

But what difference does this make to my relationship with God?

This is when we come to our verse from . It’s a famous verse, in many churches they will say this sentence to each other at the end of their meetings before they go their separate ways. We’ll do that too at the end of our service. It gets called ‘the grace’, because it starts with ...

Paul had a very difficult relationship

2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV - Anglicised

14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And it was written by the apostle Paul, right at the end of his long, long correspondence with the Christians living in Corinth.

Imagine you lived in first century Corinth all those years ago, you would have seen some shocking things happening at your church.

You would have seen sexual immorality as one man was having inappropriate relations his step mother. You would have divisions and hatred between people in the congregation, who were suing other people in their church. You would have seen the church turning to false teachers who claimed to be super apostles.

And amid that incredibly difficult relationship where Paul had been deeply hurt by these Christians, he has one final word to say to them. After writing incredibly long letters to them, the last sentence that he leaves them with is his prayer. He prays what he thinks they most need. . . now that he’s finished his correspondence.

And what they need is…not to be told to have a relationship with God in the abstract. But what they need is to relate to each person, to the Father, and to the SOn, and to the SPirit. They need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

And friends that’s exactly what we need this morning.

If we’re finally resist sexual immorality and instead love God, if we’re to not just know about Jesus but really adore Jesus in our hearts, if we’re to love and be united with each other amid the hurt and sin we inflict on one another. . .

then we need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We need to relate to each person of the Trinity so that our hearts can not only catch up with our heads but our hearts can even run way ahead of our heads. So that we can enjoy God and find delight in him.

So let’s start with

1) The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

In the New testament, Jesus is particularly associated with grace.

Now I’m not saying that’s exclusive to Jesus, that’s not to say that the Father and the Holy Spirit aren’t adescribed as gracious. But there is still a pattern, Jesus is most associated with grace.

Let me show you how we see that.

The Apostle Paul was so enamored by Jesus’ grace, that this phrase became his new way of saying good bye to his friends. His standard way of finishing a letter was to say, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” [SLIDE]

That’s the way he ended his glorious letter to the Romans, but also Galatians, his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon and of course our one here too.

Romans 16:20 NIV - Anglicised

20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Letters ending with ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus [Christ]’

Galatians 6:18 NIV - Anglicised

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

(; ; ; ;

1 Corinthians 16:23 NIV - Anglicised

23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV - Anglicised

28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

John 1 NIV - Anglicised

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ” 16 From the fulness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. 19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.” 21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” 24 Now some Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 “I baptise with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” 28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising. 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). 43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you.” 49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” 50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig-tree. You shall see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Philemon 25 NIV - Anglicised

25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV - Anglicised

14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

So in Paul’s letters, grace is particularly associated with Jesus. But it’s not just Paul.

John 1:14 NIV - Anglicised

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And just in case you missed, he says it again almost immediately:

John 1:16 NIV - Anglicised

16 From the fulness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

John 1:16

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV - Anglicised

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

There was one man who was a follower of Jesus and who even lived life alongside Jesus for three years as one of his best friends. He even wrote a biography of Jesus and in it he wrote this:

John 1:14 NIV - Anglicised

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And just in case you missed, he says it again almost immediately:

John 1:16 NIV - Anglicised

16 From the fulness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

In the New Testament, Jesus is particularly associated with grace.

So now we’ve seen that. But what does that mean about Jesus and what he’s like? Well thankfully, Paul unpacked exactly that for us in a most profound statement in the very letter we’re looking at 2 Corinthians. In chapter 8 and verse 9 he says this:

And

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV - Anglicised

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

If you want to see the grace of the Lord Jesus, look at how he leaves his riches in heaven to come down to our world, to live in poverty, to be lynched and murdered. So that we through his earthly poverty, through his sacrifice, might become rich with all Jesus’ heavenly riches.

The Christian life is a life that starts when we encounter the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time. Of all creation, we human beings were the black sheep that turned away from this Triune God of Love. We were sheep a long way from home, and very lost.

But God the Son, in his grace, came down to find us. The Good Shepherd went out to seek and save the lost, his lost sheep, put them on his shoulder, and carry them all the way home to his Father. This Shepherd found us, and we didn’t deserve it, but he was gracious to us. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ means that no matter what you’ve done, you can be accepted by him right now.

Maybe you’ve never really come to him before. Or you’ve only just started to come to him recently. Even if you’re caught in sin as you sit here this morning, no matter what it is, there is grace for you in Jesus.

You might be thinking, but Michael you don’t know what I’ve done.

You’re right. I don’t know. But I do know Jesus. And I do know how amazing his grace is.

The most famous hymn in the world is amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And the man who wrote those immortal words was once a gambler, a drunk, and even a slave trader. But he encountered the boundless grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who welcomed him and brought him home. Over years he realised what terrible things he’d done and so he who had been a slave trader joined William Wilberforce and many others in the fight against slavery.

Well let me tell you about one man who did. He tells us that he sinned with a high hand. He couldn’t hold down a job because he kept getting fired for his irresponsible behaviour. He was in the navy before he deserted, ran away and betrayed his country. So he turned to the slave trade for a job. He made his money profiting off the suffering of other people. He disregarded the image of God in African men and women and happily took part in their slavery.

But then God

He was so undeserving. But he said it was grace that brought him safe thus far, And grace will lead him home.

And if Jesus could forgive John Newton the slave trader, he can forgive you!

Jesus’ grace is for those of us like the Corinthians, who are sexually broken, who have messed up our relationships with others. No matter what you’ve done!

Come to him.

Yes, when you first come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll be amazed by his grace.

That’s how he ends his letters to

But as you go on living in relationship with Jesus, how do you experience his grace in day-to-day life?

So check out the way

Well when I was a child...

You will sin every single day, and when you sin you can actually experience Jesus’ grace. Because after you’ve committed that sin again, you can look to his grace in leaving heaven for earth for that very sin. He knew that you would do that when he went to the cross, and he even died to pay for that sin. You can experience his grace when you sin.

But more than that, what is Jesus’ grace now?

Did you know that Jesus is always praying for you, 24/7. He is your high priest in heaven, interceding for you. And so when you sin, you can immediately, without any cooling off period, come back to him. That is grace! The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2) The Love of God the Father

In the Bible, God the Father is primarily associated with love.

AGain, it’s not exclusive, many times Jesus and the SPirit are too. But there is a pattern.

Let’s start with Paul and then go to John again.

In [slide]

Ephesians 1:3–5 NIV - Anglicised

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

Your salvation and God’s love for you started before you became a Christian, it started before you were even born. Before Jesus even came to earth, before creation itself. Your Father chose us before the creation of the world, in love.

Now I know that God as Father is a difficult concept for us to appreciate because we have such a mixed experience from our earthly fathers. Maybe you haven’t had a good father at all. Where does this leave your relationship to God? Well it’s not that we call God father because he’s a bit like earthly fathers. It’s the compete other way round. You feel the hurt you do by your father because you were made for relationship with your heavenly Father who really loves you and will protect you for eternity.

You know one day maybe after thirty years, your father became a father for the first time in his life. But God the Father never became a father. He has always been a Father because he has always had a Son, Jesus Christ, who has always been by his side. God became a creator when he made the world, but he has always been a Father.

And did you know that God’s love for you started before you became a Christian, it started before you were even born. Before Jesus even came to earth, and before creation itself. Your Father chose us before the creation of the world, in love.

But we can see this is with John too.

Think of the most famous verse in the Bible. Do you remember it? [Click]

John 3:16a NIV - Anglicised

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It’s that God was angry and because Jesus died NOW he loves you.

Now, For God so loved the world…and we know it’s talking about the Father because it says that he sent his Son. And it was because of his love that he sent his Son.

In the Bible, God the Father is primarily associated with love. And where do we see God’s love most fundamentally.

Well we’ve already looked in John’s gospel but he gives us the answer to that in his first letter. He says this:

1 John 4:9–10 NIV - Anglicised

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

You see the Father’s love for you in that he gives us what is most precious to him, his own Son.

If you want to see you Father’s love, see how he gives up his Son to die for us, and see how he gives us his Son to enjoy life with for all eternity.

1 John 4:10 NIV - Anglicised

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

In the Bible, God is primarily associated with God the Father.

But why do you think that Bible keeps repeating over and over again how full of love the Father is for us? Why do we find it so hard to believe?

Come back with me to the beginning of the story when God placed Adam and Eve in a sumptious garden. And he said you see all these trees and fruit and plants I’ve created for you. You can eat from all of them. But there’s just one tree in this whole place that you’re not to eat from, OK? Just one.

But then notice what the serpent says when he goes to tempt Eve. Look very carefully at what he says in

Genesis 3:1 NIV - Anglicised

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Do you see what he’s doing?

God said you can eat from any tree, just not one. But the serpent’s strategy is to make God out to be a stingey, unloving god, who said you must not eat from any tree.

This is the lie that we are so tempted to believe - my father doesn’t love me.

And you’l be especially prone to believing that lie in the middle of temptation. So imagine that you’re in that situation where you’re tempted to stumbled into that same sin that besets you. And you’re tempted to believe it would be so much better if I could just indulge this sin, I deserve this, God is trying to take away my comfort and my pleasure by his commandments not to do this.

This is the lie, my Father doesn’t really love me, he’s actually a stingey unloving god.

John Owen said this:

“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you.”

Chester, Tim. Enjoying God: Experience the power and love of God in everyday . The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.

So no wonder the Bible tells you again and again how much your Father loves you. And if you had any doubt, look at how he gave you his precious Son.

a) So when you are tempted you can experience the Father’s love by clinging to him and believing that he knows best for you.

b) And you can also experience the Father’s love by coming to him in prayer.

That’s how Jesus taught us to pray, pray our Father. He delights to hear his children talk to him.

Maybe you’ve forgotten what a wonderful experience it is to be able to prayer at anytime to your wonderful Father.

Well let me tell you the experience of one Pakistani woman. She was a Muslim who had been taught that God has no son and is not a father.

But one day a nun who believed in Jesus came as a nurse to their house. And bilquis asked how she can pray to God so …personally. And the nun said, when you pray, talk to him as if he were your Father, pray to him as your Father.

And she was stunned by what the nun said. to pray to him as if he were my father.

But when she was alone that night, she tried. But it wouldn’t work. It felt ridiculous.

And her mind drifted it drifted to her childhood memories. Memories of her father sitting in his study and she’d be scared of interrupting him. But before she said anything he would see her in the corner of his eye and immediately drop what he was doing and love her. She was never interrupting her father.

And then she wondered, what if..God really is a Father?

She said shaking with excitement, she got out of bed, sank to her knees on the rug and with this rich new understanding of father prayed

O Father, my father, Father God. Her voice was unusually loud as she talked to him.

Suddenly the room wasn’t empty any more. He was there. She could sense his presence. She says it’s as if I could see His eyes, filled with love and compassion. For a long time I knelt there, sobbing quietly, floating in his love. I had met, personally, the Father God.

And you can read her story in this book, I dared to call him Father.

You too can experience his love by praying to him, right now.

Genesis 3 NIV - Anglicised

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” 20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Finally

And You too can cling to his love when you are tempted to believe that he is not. This is the love of God the Father.

3) The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit

Finally and most briefly we come to the Holy Spirit. The question is when it says fellowship of the Spirit, does it mean the fellowship we have with each other because of the Spirit, or does it mean the fellowship with the Spirit himself? I think the answer is…yes. Both! So let’s take each one:

a) Fellowship with the Spirit

The moment you believe in Jesus, you are given the Holy Spirit as a seal, as a deposit in this life to guarantee what is to come in eternity.

He is the first course in the banquet that is to come.

And he’s the reason you’re able to do anything in relationship to God. And so whenever you do anything related to God or church we need to be consciously making ourselves see that as the Spirit relating to us and having fellowship with us.

It’s because he regenerated your heart that you were able to respond to God. If you ever pray to your Father, if ever serve in church, if you ever speak about Jesus to others it’s because he lives in you and stirs your heart. You would never do those things naturally. He empowers you in those things!

And when the spiritual high of Sunday is gone, and it’s dull of Monday morning, realise that even though you can’t be at church with others, the Spirit is with you. You are never alone, he is with you wherever you go.

So will you be more conscious of your relationship with the SPirit? ENjoy him as he empowers you in everything you do.

Fellowship with the Spirit.

b) Fellowship with others in the Spirit.

Because we were made to relate to God with others, as part of the church. And when you experience that, that is the SPirit in you.

Because maybe you’re right to feel that monday morning lull a little bit. Because on Sunday you were having fellowship with others in the Spirit, and on Monday you don’t get to enjoy having those around you and you’re faced with everything your day throws at you without uplifting worship and an encouraging message and catch ups over a cup of tea.

Fellowship with others in the Spirit.

[[[[[There was a time when I was in a small group at Carey and I thought, I really can’t believe I’m in a room with this group of people. Because humanly speaking there is nothing uniting us. ANd now that I’ve seen the fellowship of the Spirit I can see that I was actually experiencing relationship with the Spirit in that moment as I had fellowship with others. ]]]

So let’s be encouraging one another this week. Let the Spirit roam freely and text someone from church to say you were just thinking and praying for them. Why not try to have someone new round for a meal. Just your friend a call and just chat through how you can pray for each other.

Let’s experience fellowship with the Spirit and fellowship with others in the Spirit.

We’ve seen that we can enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ no matter what we’ve done by immediately turning back to him. You’ll find him praying for you 24/7 and you’ll find him welcoming you agaiin and again, full of grace.

And when it’s late at your house and you are right in the hour of temptation and you’re tempted to think God is just being stingey with you in his commandments. Then see him giving you what is most precious to him, and see that the Father is full of love to you. And come to him in prayer as your Father who delights to hear his children.

We’ve seen the Love of God the Father. Let’s get in the habit of just telling him what’s on our mind. And when we’re tempted by sin to believe he doesn’t love us, let’s cling to his fatherly love by looking at how he gives us his Son.

And when you feel lonely, then have fellowship with the Spirit, who is always with you. Who makes your future totally secure. You are never alone.

And have felloship with the SPirit, empowering everything you do.

you were meant to relate to God with others. So let’s enjoy our relationship to the SPirit even over tea and coffee, and what better to enjoy the Holy Spirit than over a BBQ! He’s the one who has brought us together on this journey to the new creatoin.

So praise Father Son and Holy Spirit and let’s respond by worshipping them now.

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Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.